I fell asleep basically the moment my head hit the pillow. It was te. Somewhat expectedly, I failed to awaken when my phone arm started beeping. And because I didn’t usually need more than one, I didn’t have spares. I woke up around 10. Even then I was far from ready to walk out the door. The first thing I did was update my diary. I like to think that the next time deplorable people try to erase people like me from the history books, that there’ll be one more book for them to maybe forget to burn. And my first gay kiss was way too important not to document. I typed it out on my ptop first so I could phrase and rephrase at will without wasting paper before carefully transcribing it in my dreadful handwriting.

  Then I took some medicine. You’d think after a childhood of semi-regur beatings I’d be less worried about a little needleprick. You’d be wrong. After that I decided to have a wash. The powergrid didn’t really have the oomph for a power shower so this consisted of filling big pot of water, heating it on my gas stove and then scrubbing myself down with a sponge. I probably could have heated enough for a bath if I’d had all day but even if I had time I had no intention of allowing myself to be even partially submerged. I put my dirty clothes in a bag. I’d take it with me when I went to resupply other perishables and wash them in a self-serve undromat.

  I briefly considered putting on makeup but as usual chickened out. Nobody would see it anyway. I wouldn’t let them. I wonder how Alice imagines I look like. If she’s noticed the discrepancies between her illusion of me and the boring truth. I sighed. Oh Alice… She’s probably wondering why I didn’t come to school today. Bones. I pulled my toast off the grill, triple checked the gas was off and then grabbed my skateboard and dashed out the door.

  It was a bit of an interesting model. I had tires taken off of some monster truck toy on over the wheels to make the offroad experience slightly more tolerable. It wasn’t amazing but once I got to the top of the hill it would basically carry me all the way into town without a joule of power on my end. My backpack was also lighter now that I knew exactly what I needed and didn’t need to pack for the apocalypse. I was still carrying like three sets of gym clothes but it was way more manageable.

  I arrived in css after twelve. There was a green haired girl I didn’t recognize substituting for the teacher. Wait, green hair? I could have sworn nobody on the mountain had an unnatural hair colour. The substitute teacher suddenly turned on her heel to face my direction. I reflexively commanded her “See me not”. She looked right past me. But her hair was no longer green and her skin was now a light chocotey colour. And her hairstyle. Was that… but she’s a cartoon character!

  “And then she was like: aww, you were all scared of your crush saying no? Don’t be sad! I SHALL BE YOUR DATE FOR GROM! Amity Blight, would you do me the honour of sying Grom with me?” excimed Luz’s deadringer. Did she just… My brain caught up and I realized it was Alice. Of course. She can shapeshift. Why do I keep forgetting that? Alice twirled around again and as she twirled I saw her hair dye itself green from the roots down. “And she was all: sniff of course I’ll sy a demon with you! And then they had a cool fight with Amity’s aquakinesis and Luz’s titan whispering and then they were both wearing cute dresses and it was SO! FREAKING ROMANTIC!”.

  Alice sat down on the floor and began panting. I gave a small appuse, startling her and she squeaked with shock. “You’re te miss Wolfe” said the actual history teacher, who had been sitting in one of the front row desks for some reason. “Sorry miss. I accidentally stayed up till after midnight and had trouble waking up in the morning” I said. She chuckled. “Well since you’re finally here I have a few questions if you don’t mind me asking”.

  “Sure, just let me sit down first” I said. I made for the nearest unoccupied desk to the front of the cssroom but she stayed me with a light chuckle. “Oh have this seat. The show is over anyway.” she said. I took her seat and she took her rightful pce at the head of the cssroom. “Miss Wolfe, are Miss Cooper’s recollections about how outsiders believe magic work accurate?” she asked. “Yes and no” I replied. “Every fiction author has their own idea of how magic works, some drawn from old stories and some made up to best serve a particur plot. Most people don’t actually believe magic is real and the most popur theory among those who do is witches bang biblical demons in exchange for power. What that power does varies wildly” I recounted.

  The teacher nodded. “So basically miss Cooper just wasted a lesson so she could gush about her new favourite story” she asked. “I was only here for the st part so I cannot vouch for the overall irrelevance of her tirade” I said carefully. The teacher sighed, and then asked “Could you not have shown her something useful?”

  I frowned. “With respect miss, its our free time to spend as we please. Do you go home and then spend the whole night studying history.” I asked snidely. “Nothing pleases me more” she chuckled. I stifled a giggle. On one hand that was really sad. On the other hand my yuri addicted face had no stones to throw in the not having me hobbies department. Once I was sure my face was back under control I stopped covering my mouth. “Okay, fair enough. I have a few history documentaries on DVD if you want to borrow them” I said as a peace offering. “What’s a documentaries on DVD?” she asked with a headtilt. Oh, right. None of these people had TVs. “Um… I’ll bring one in tomorrow” I said weakly.

  Alice got sent to principal Bck’s office for wasting css time. I spent the rest of the css fielding questions from the history teacher that I only had the barest idea about. “So how are the movies stored on the discs?” - “very small bumps that reflect light differently” - “and where can one get a DVD pyer?” - “you could get one for like 20 dolrs in a second-hand store” - “And where do you get DVDs” - “Also mostly the second hand store. They’re still very expensive new”

  Eventually the bell rang. I went down to the principal’s office to collect Alice. Once there I had a quick conversation with the principal who told me that Alice had already left for the cafeteria. I bid him thanks and then met Alice there.

  Food as it turned out was free in the cafeteria. Which made me feel silly for the extra weight I carried the first few times. The only stipution is we sometimes take a day off css to help a farmer with the harvest. The town had a couple, all with powers specialized to farming. There were one or two with the same power of accelerating biological processes as the school nurse who basically spent hours each day applying the effect on a massive scale to entire fields of crops. There were some who worked simir magic on livestock so they could produce far more milk eggs and meat than more canny beasts. This meant while the variety of food wasn’t amazing, no belly ever went hungry.

  Alice was sulking. I Guess she was mad at me for not lying to the teacher about how outsiders think magic works to save her bacon. Whatever. The world needs consequences. Can’t have respect without them and without respect we would never have invented pizza. I should cook pizza for Dinner. I bet it would blow Alice’s mind. I should have a few frozen ones in the refrigerator. (The power grid didn’t really have the oomph for a real one, but a rge minifridge kept in a sun starved corner worked well enough on 2 hours of power a day on a timer switch. Its not like I had the money to stock up on several weeks of fresh food from the outside)

  Unexpectedly, Leah and Rose sat down at our table. “Shit, how did you find us” I gasped. Rose tilted her head. “You’re just sitting here” she said. I took a fried potato off her pte and threw it at someone ten feet away. She looked straight at me and stared straight through me. I turned to Rose with an annoyed head tilt. “Huh. Maybe we can see you because you want to hang out with us? Because you like us?” she said sarcastically. That… was in line with how my power worked. I sighed and sat back down.

  They were good conversation during lunch. Leah told me how her limbs were still sore but the pain lessened each day. She expected to be back on her paws by Friday. I told her what its like to be bedridden for weeks and then when you get back on your feet you’re not quite as strong as you used to be and you need to build the muscle back up again. She found my pain funny. “Sucks to suck murder girl” she giggled.

  “So do you guys know the elders?” I asked. “Well yeah. Everyone knows the elders. The elders spend some time hanging out with everyone. How could they do their job otherwise?” asked Rose. “Most outsiders have never even met their town council representative” I noted. “Then how are they supposed to represent them?” snapped Leah, as if that were the stupidest thing she’d ever heard. “Well… they don’t” I said. This led to something between an exposition dump and a fist fight.

  “But if you hate the president so much, why don’t you just kill him with your powers” yelled Leah. “ONE! Too risky. Might wind up burned at the stake. TWO! It would be really difficult to get close to him because there’s more people guarding him than probably live in the whole town. THREE! The disgusting filth that actually runs this country would just repce him with another ideologically indistinguishable puppet. Killing one person rarely fixes much and when it will its not always obvious who you have to kill”. We were both panting with exertion and PE hadn’t even started yet. Rose and Alice were watching us verbally spar while sipping apple juice and pretending it was fine wine. Well at least they were having fun.

  PE today was a game called cavalry. We were to split into teams of five. Four would carry a teammate using a sort of hammock thing where each of the carriers carried one end of 2 sticks joined by a cloth. If the rider touches the floor for any reason the whole team is out. As usual I paired up with Alice, Leah and Rose. Rose was our rider. Her power took a lot of concentration and also benefited from a better vantage point. I could use my power just as well from the ground, Alice’s wasn’t likely to be useful and Leah wasn’t allowed use hers indoors anyway.

  Riley was our forth leg. He whined about getting stuck on a team with no useful powers. Had he forgotten Jessica getting injured? Actually come to think of it that was entirely possible. I did have a habit of accidentally editing embarrassing moments out of other people’s memories. I can’t help it okay! My power, while technically an active power tended to do subtle things in the background. Yes, I know that’s terrifying, I’m scared too.

  Speaking of Jessica she was a monster at this. If she had any lingering trouble from bumping her head she did not in the slightest show it. She scored two eliminations before the teacher finished blowing the starting whistle. She only lost out on the third because the girl reacted quickly. Jessica teleported in above her, intending to deliver an elbow and make her teammates drop the hammock thing like the other two teams had. But the girl reacted quickly and summoned a cushion of wind that redirected Jessica towards the floor and she was very nearly eliminated herself.

  “What’s our pn?” said Alice. “Cast off notice, avoid other teams and wait till there’s only one team left” I responded. “Where’s the fun in that” scoffed Leah. “Winning isn’t always fun” I muttered. “Bullshit, whats the point in that” scoffed Leah. “I say we start eliminating and don’t stop till we’re the st girls standing” she added.

  “And boy” pouted Riley. “That can be fixed” I said with an evil smile. Everyone, including Alice looked at me like I’d grown a second head. “What’s that supposed to mean” grunted Riley. I sighed. “Sorry. In joke from an old friend group. You wouldn’t get it” I said sadly. Just then we were nearly bowled over by a team who’s strategy seemed to be pick the 4 rgest students as carriers and one of the smallest as a rider and just bulldoze the other teams while keeping their champion wrapped in the hammock thing like a pig in a bnket so nobody could knock her off. Luckily they only bumped Leah, who even in human form could probably bend a cast iron frying pan with her face.

  “You okay Leah” I asked. “Lets. Just. Kick. Their. Asses” she grunted. I gave a defeated sigh. “Sure, lets have some fun” I said. “Hey Rose. Think you could move the girl in the hammock without moving the hammock?” I asked. “The whatnow?” said Rose. “The hammock. This thing” I said with a gesture. “Oh, the pankeen” said Rose. “Sure, I’ll try. Get me close though. Its harder to move stuff that’s further away”.

  Huh. Guess I’m not the only one who’s at my strongest when I’m close enough to punch you in the girlkisser. I supposed that made a certain amount of sense. Why wouldn’t magic operate more or less within the ws of physics?

  I’ll give us this much. We were the best co-ordinated team. While everyone else had to exchange grunts and gnces, or even worse verbally notify each other when they need to speed up, slow down or stop I was able to have us march in perfect synchrony, my teammates legs perfectly in time with my own. Which was fine for Leah who was fitter than an olympian with Atanta’s heart on the line but Alice and Riley were almost immediately out of breath matching the furious march my father had drilled into my soul. “Slow down” compined Alice. “Just shapeshift yourself some muscles” I retorted. “That’s not how it works idiot! I can maybe borrow some from my arms to make my legs run faster but then I couldn’t carry the pankeen” she groused.

  I sighed and set the team’s pace to a more manageable trot. But we couldn’t catch up to team bull like this. They were full on sprinting to gain as much momentum as possible to bowl people over. I started to wonder if they were even within the non-lethal power usage rule. I gave it some thought. On closer inspection, their strategy didn’t actually seem to be using any powers. They were just bowling people over with mundane muscle. They made a beeline for Jessica’s team and Jessica teleported in and then teleported them to the other side of the gymnasium. They still nded in a heap but Jessica almost immediately teleported to someone else’s pankeen to harass them, giving her carriers time to recover.

  The bulls meanwhile crashed into a wall and their tiny rider let out a grunt of pain as she shot forward in her bnket and bumped her feet. I winced. “Not looking after their rider very well, are they” I noted. “amateurs” snarled Leah. I looked her over. She could probably carry Rose on her own come to think of it. That gave me an idea. I used my powers to upload it directly into everyone elses’ brains. Leah smiled. “Sure, I’m game” she said. “Are you nuts” snapped Alice. “Fine then, you hang back with Leah” I said. “Riley?” - “Um… sure okay”

  I called out to the bulls minds. “HEY BOZOS!” Instantly they turned to face us. They bent their knees, as if they too had a hive mind. They charged. Wait for it. Rose hopped off our pankeen onto Leah’s shoulders. Leah tossed her side of the rod to me and Alice to Riley. Then Riley and me charged the approaching bulls. Surprise fshed in their eyes but they hopefully didn’t guess our intention. As we charged we changed orientation so we were carrying the pankeen wide instead of charging single file. Then at the st second we let our feet slip out from under us (a maneuver I was unfortunately familiar with) held the rod up like a dumbbell and held onto it for dear life. The bulls tripped over it and their rider’s heels hit the ground with a painful sounding bump. She immediately started cursing them out.

  I let go the pankeen and let Riley carry it back to the rest of our team. They were all smiling. Apparently our maneuver was pretty funny. Without warning, Jessica teleported in front of Rose, screamed and pushed her hard, causing both her and Leah to nd in a heap. She then teleported back to her own team. But she missed her own pankeen and nded on her butt. Apparently teleporting doesn’t change your velocity much. She had accounted for having some forward momentum by having her teammates give her some velocity before teleporting off for her attack. She did not account for Rose being able to throw a small girl across a whole tennis court if she was angry enough. Which she really should have. Everyone saw that right? Oh wait. Me and my subconscious erasure of embarrassing memories.

  We were far from the st team standing. But we ughed about our slip and tripping the bulls and Rose yeeting Jessica like a disappointing child for ages.

  I invited Alice over to my house again. This time we watched The Danish Girl. Well the history teacher asked me to show her something historical, right? I also remembered to feed her (Pizza, which she’d never tasted before and loved) and walked her home at a reasonable time.

  “Why not take the car again. And why don’t you take it to school for that matter?” she asked. “Well my license is restricted to Emergency Only, and getting to school and back is hardly an emergency when I can just walk. Besides, there’s nowhere to park it and I enjoy the country air. When I’m in that thing, I’m isoted from the rest of the world. And while that might be nice sometimes you can’t hide under a rock forever. Eventually, the world will come for me, and I’d rather not be out of practice when it does”